Chris Lotz
Dr Chris Lotz completed a BSc in Zoology and Botany, an Honours degree in Avian Biology (cum laude), and then a PhD (on nectar-feeding African sunbirds) at the University of Cape Town. After a short stint of lecturing at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, post-doctoral research on hummingbirds at the University of Wyoming in the USA, he started Birding Ecotours, a company which runs bird-watching tours in South Africa and to international destinations. He is Chairman of the BirdLife South Africa List Committee, which is responsible for compiling a list of the common bird names in South Africa, with the aim to standardise and to annually update the names.  The list has resulted in the publication in 2010 and then in 2011 of the BirdLife South Africa Checklist of Birds in South Africa, subsequently resulting in, during 2011, of the BirdLife Suid-Afrika Voëllys Suid-Afrika 2011.

Boudewyn van der Lecq
Boudewyn (Bo) van der Lecq founded the Urban Raptor Conservation Programme, and spends much of his spare time studying and conserving the raptors in the greater Johannesburg area.  He was involved with the Roodekrans Black Eagle project, especially with the relocation of dassies into the Verreaux’s Eagle pair’s territory. Latterly he has been involved with the conservation and monitoring of the Klipriviersberg Verreaux’s Eagles, a pair which nest on an artificial platform which was erected by Bo and the Siyavaya Highway Construction Joint Venture. The eagles successfully bred on this structure in 2010. Bo is also responsible for erecting owl boxes through the Urban Owl Nest Project and he monitors a pair of African Fish-eagles at Lake Heritage.

David Sonnenberg
David Sonnenberg, through his Diemersfontein Wine Estate, is assisting BirdLife South Africa by contributing a proportion of the sales of the specially labelled “For the Birds!” wine to the “Save Our Seabirds Fund”. He also demonstrated a personal commitment to seabird conservation through the donation of R30 000.00 to the Fund. A white wine version of the For the Birds!  will be launched at the “Save our Seabirds Festival” in Cape Town during October.

Award received by Christina Moseley.

Graham Brill
The Albatross Task Force (ATF) has been working with Irvin and Johnson (I&J), and in particular Graham Brill, since 2006. Graham assists BirdLife South Africa by allowing our ATF instructors access on I&J’s vessels, facilitates a number of important research projects (including mitigation devices to reduce the mortality of seabirds during fishing operations). He is a member of the newly formed Seabird Task Team of the Responsible Fisheries Alliance which addresses issues relating to seabird matters (such as updated bycatch figures, experiments, and proposed permit conditions).

Award received by Ross Wanless.

Keith Harrison
Keith Harrison was a founder member of the West Coast Bird Club (WCBC), chaired the WCBC for three years, and is their current Conservation Officer. He represents the WCBC at the Western Cape Birding Forum, is involved in the Berg River Estuary Management Forum and the Environmental Management Framework for Saldanha and Velddrif, and is involved in a number of bird monitoring projects (including CWAC, BIRP and SABAP2). Keith writes a bi-weekly birding column for the Westlander, a local newspaper, on topics which impact on birds and their habitat. He also conducts tern surveys, a raptor and crow survey along 110 km of the R27 road, comments on Environmental Impact Assessments (relating to a variety of developments, especially wind farms). Keith is contributing significantly to the monitoring and conservation of birds in the Westren Cape, especially at the Langebaan Lagoon Ramsar Site.

Lance Robinson
Lance Robinson is a member of Witwatersrand Bird Club (WBC), and has been Chairman and Vice Chairman of the club for many years. He has committed an extensive amount of time to furthering the aims of birding and bird conservation through WBC and BirdLife South Africa. He also serves on BirdLife South Africa’s Council, on its Executive Committee, and on the Important Bird Areas Steering Committee. He is Chairman of the Gauteng/North West Bird Club Forum, and the Forum is going from strength to strength under his leadership. Lance is a very knowledgeable birder and known for his patience as he introduces new bird-watchers to the wonderful world of birds.

Mel Tripp
Mel Tripp joined the Cape Bird Club in 1988, and has served on the Committee for many years, including as Vice Chairman. He was Chairman of the Organising Committee for the successful BirdLife South Africa AGM in Saldana.  He has served with distinction on BirdLife South Africa’s Marketing Committee since its inception. Through his talent and creative genius over the last two years he has found himself at the forefront of the rebranding process that BirdLife South Africa is undergoing, giving BirdLife South Africa the elegant and powerful new voice it now has.

Peter Lawson
Peter Lawson was instrumental in starting BirdLife Lowveld, formerly Lowveld Bird Club, in 1985, was Chairman for five years before handing over to his successor and has edited the magazine, The Hornbill, since the inception of the club. He is a knowledgeable bird-watcher, patient teacher, excellent public speaker, accomplished photographer, dedicated atlaser, and committed conservationist.

Russell Hall
The Albatross Task Force (ATF) has been working with Sea Harvest, and in particular Russell Hall, since 2006. During this time Russell has shown an increased interest in our conservation work and seabirds in general and he has gone out of his way to ensure space and access to his vessels to ensure our team can collect data at sea. He has been in the forefront of trying to solve two issues related to seabird bycatch, namely discard management in the hake trawl fishery and the sticky grease that covers some new trawl cables.  He has also set up experiments on the Sea Harvest fleet to test mitigation devices, and these have been improved with time. Russell is chairperson for the newly formed Seabird Task Team of the Responsible Fisheries Alliance.

Award  received by Ross Wanless.

Sylvia Ledgard
Sylvia Ledgard joined the Cape Bird Club in 1993 and served as the Honorary Secretary of the club for over ten years. For many years Sylvia has championed various BirdLife South Africa projects in the Western Cape and she has done so with dedication and unstinting passion and professionalism. Sylvia and her team were instrumental in creating the Western Cape Birding Forum many years ago – this was the first forum of its kind in the country. This body represents all the bird clubs of the region, involving over 2000 birdwatchers. Sylvia has served as the Forum’s Honorary Secretary since inception and she continues to fulfil this critical role with distinction today.  The impact of her work is having a significant and powerful effect on bird and bird habitat conservation initiatives throughout the Western Cape.

Daniel Sims
During the past two years Danny Sims has become a great friend of BirdLife South Africa, and Carl Zeiss (Pty) Ltd has supported BirdLife South Africa in a number of ways, including offering free membership to BirdLife South Africa for all purchases of new Zeiss binoculars, sponsoring the upgrade of BirdLife South Africa’s website, sponsoring in 2010 and 2011 the BirdLife South Africa Checklist of Birds in South Africa, providing a pair of binoculars to BirdLife South Africa’s CEO, and exhibiting at the annual “Sasol Birds & Birding Fair”.

Ronelle Visagie
Ronelle Visagie has made a massive contribution to the study, monitoring and conservation of raptors in the Eastern Karoo. This has included completing 1318 Nest Record Cards for her farm in the early-1990s, assisting with coordination of the Karoo Large Terrestrial Bird Survey since 1995, undertaking monitoring of large terrestrial bird collisions with powerlines in the Karoo, colour-ringing of Blue Cranes, handling (ringing and retraps) more than 3000 birds, and bi-annual waterbird surveys. She has been actively involved in raptor conservation since the mid-1990s, and this work is now done through the auspices of the EWT’s Birds of Prey Programme. In 2000 she received the Gariep Raptor Conservationist Award for her work, and she has been secretary of the Northern Cape Raptor Conservation Forum and hardly missed a bi-annual meeting since the Forum was established in 1991.

Award received by Ernst Retief

Jon Smallie
Jon Smallie is Programme Manager of the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s Wildlife Energy Programme (WEP). His work has mainly involved seeking effective mitigation methods to reduce bird electrocutions on electricity pylons and bird collisions with the cables of powerlines. WEP also plays an advisory role with mitigation of bird impacts caused by power lines in many other African countries. WEP has, under the leadership of Jon Smallie, in recent years been involved in developing mitigation guidelines to minimise the impacts on our birds by wind farms. Working with BirdLife South Africa, this has involved convening a workshop in August 2010, forming the Birds and Wind Energy Specialist Group and the Birds and Wind Energy Forum, and engaging with the Department of Environmental Affairs on wind energy and bird issues. WEP has sponsored the development of the Bird Wind Sensitivity Map which is being developed by BirdLife South Africa. Jon Smallie also played a critical role in the development of the “Best Practice Pre- and Post construction Monitoring Protocols for Wind Facilities in Southern Africa”.

Peter Sullivan
Peter Sullivan served as Chairman of BirdLife South Africa for four years (March 2007 to March 2011). His eloquence has left an indelible mark on the voice of our organisation. We speak louder and clearer now. We speak powerfully and with confident authority. We speak inclusively and we speak as a team. Peter has shown us how to talk to the peoples of South Africa, how to communicate a powerful idea and how to dream big. His considerable experience in the corporate world of business has opened up many doors and we now call many huge, multi-national companies our “dear friends”. Peter has also taught us how to listen – listen like a journalist. Under his stewardship we have learnt a great deal from listening to people, whether it be men and women of science, captains of industry, or those who walk the streets every day.

Daniel Marnewick
Since The Important Bird Areas of Southern Africa directory was published in 1998, very little on the ground work was done to ensure that these important sites are protected. This changed in early-2010, when Daniel Marnewick became responsible for BirdLife South Africa’s Important Bird Area (IBA) Programme. This has involved re-evaluating the boundaries of the IBAs, re-evaluating the species present in IBAs, prioritizing IBAs, development of an three-year action plan for work in IBAs, formation of the IBA Steering Committee, and facilitation of the establishment of regional committees, engagement with provincial and national government about the protection of IBAs (through environmental legislation and the stewardship programme), and development of IBA webpages on the BirdLife South Africa website. This programme has until recently been totally unfunded, but funding was recently sourced from the Green Trust. This has enabled BirdLife South Africa to appoint a conservation manager in the Grasslands Biome. Other funding applications have been submitted or are in preparation. Daniel has other BirdLife South Africa’s work commitments, with the Wakkerstroom Centre, the Education Programme, the Cata Cape Parrot Programme, and the Regional Conservation Managers falling under his suite of responsibilities. He has, in his previous position as Manger of BirdLife South Africa’s Community-based Conservation Division, contributed admirably to the organization’s community conservation work. Daniel has also promoted BirdLife South Africa and raised funds for bird and habitat conservation through the “Fast & Featherless” initiative (especially during events and mountain bike races).